The President’s restructuring of General Motors Corporation and Chrysler LLC just got more interesting. As executives from Chrysler and the Italian carmaker Fiat have intensified their discussion on an alliance, some of the automaker’s political allies are taking aim at the big Wall Street institutions that hold Chrysler’s debt.

In a sharply worded letter to the top executives, Representative Gary Peters (D-Michigan) is warning four of the nation’s major financial institutions, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, not to block Chrysler’s chances for survival by trying to squeeze more money from the ailing carmaker. Peters noted that these institutions have already received billions of dollars in taxpayer investments and that any debts they collected from Chrysler would simply be more tax dollars.

“These banks hold the key to Chrysler’s survival,” Peters said in his letter. “Despite taking billions in taxpayer support to keep themselves solvent, these creditors are unwilling to reach a fair deal to keep Chrysler alive and to protect hundreds of thousands of American families. The banks that hold Chrysler’s debt were provided federal support for the good of the economy, and they should negotiate in good faith with automakers for the same reason,” Peters said. (more…)